Kitimat is a designed community on the north mainland coast of British Columbia. The name comes from the Tsimshian language and refers to the Haisla First Nation as the "People of the Snow".

Before 1950, this was a small fishing village at the head of Kitimat Arm on Douglas Channel, a deepwater fjord. In the 1950s, the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) undertook one of the more ambitious Canadian engineering projects of the 20th century. Kenney Dam was built across the Nechako River, and a tunnel 10 miles (16 km) long was bored under Mount Dubose to transport the captured water to a generating plant at Kemano. From there, a transmission line was strung to carry the electricity over 50 miles (80 km) to Kitimat, where a power-hungry aluminum smelter was established.

Alcan also had to plan and build the community of Kitimat from scratch for its employees and construct a deep sea terminal to export its product. Read more here and here. Click here to download the CoastView app and explore Douglas Channel.

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